1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for opening bottles with natural corks, and preferably bottles of sparkling wine. The bottle opening device may include a bottle rest to be laterally pushed onto a neck of the bottle to encircle a mouth of the bottle on three sides and from above and below. The device may also include a holding tongue formed from the bottle rest to rest against the neck of the bottle, and a cork holder to hold a head of a cork on three sides and from above and below. The cork holder may be movably mounted in the bottle rest to perform a lifting motion relative to the bottle rest. The device may also include a lever pivotably mountable to the bottle rest to move the cork holder relative to the bottle rest. The cork holder can be pivoted around a rotational axis of the bottle rest at an upper end of a lifting motion. The rotational axis may be positioned to run substantially perpendicular to an axis of the bottle and may be positioned eccentrically at a level of a bottle opening. The lever may include a stop mechanism to stop the cork holder at the upper end of the lifting motion, and the lever may include a curved deaeration track arranged such that when the lever may be moved to rotate the cork holder around the rotational axis of the bottle rest under the pressure of the cork.
2. Discussion of the Background Information
Numerous devices substantially similar to the devices generally described above are known in the prior art.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,761,338 a device is shown in which a holder is pushed laterally onto the neck of a bottle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,450 shows a device which can be pushed laterally onto the head of the cork jutting out of the bottle. In this manner, the cork is pulled out by via of a pulling lever. European Patent Publication 0 164 955 describes device with which a cork is removed from the bottle via a pivoting lever mounted on a part that holds the bottle. Finally, in European Patent Publication 0 291 546 a device is known which is similar in general to the features of the present invention.
In accordance with the prior art devices, a cork may be extracted or removed from a bottle. However, these devices suffer certain disadvantages in that they cannot open a bottle in a controlled fashion. That is, according to the pressure and temperature, the cork is released with a greater or lesser explosion. When the bottle contains, e.g., sparkling wine, the explosion of the cork removal also releases much of the "carbon dioxide" found in the sparkling wine. In this manner, the contents of the bottle generally ends up foaming over adversely affecting the taste of the wine.